LIFE WHERE WE LIVE: The journey is never too hard when it is home

What is important to you when it comes to your home? Is it the kitchen, the master bathroom, a nice den, flooring, fireplace, maybe location? And we can go on-- don't forget the yard! Maybe it is just the feeling of HOME. Getting back to the old house post I did a couple weeks ago, I want to talk about what you can do to improve an old home. Sometimes we want a home that is move-in ready. Other times, we find what seems like could be a great home, but we just don't think it is move-in ready. Maybe the floor needs replacing, maybe those old cabinets look tired, or that pink bathroom is just not your taste! Just because a house is not perfect is not always a good reason to walk away. Maybe that home is a great future investment.

When we bought our old house we had just about all of the above to deal with, but when we stepped back and looked past all the bad things, we realized the good outweighed all the bad. Good location, and old houses are built so well! We had space and we knew we had a great neighborhood! Although when it came to what we needed to do... everything needed something. And I mean everything! Maybe youth makes you dream about what you have many years to do. Maybe we just fell in love with an old house that made us feel like it was going to be part of our life's journey together. We were still pretty young and could have never afforded anything like our house if it were new or in good shape. This old house needed a whole lot of love and a lot of work!

It is not always possible for someone to see past the work a house will take to be what you dream of. If it were not for my father egging us on we would have never taken that step. As a realtor working with buyers and sellers I see how couples can jump right in to a home seeing the future and I see how others stress over the thought of remodeling a home. I am not sure why but when I see a home needing tender loving care, I can envision it's future. I especially can imagine a yard as a future retreat! When we moved in to our house I remember cringing over the very sad looking yard! My mind was full of ideas, but how long would I have to wait? Luckily I had a dad who was retired and a husband young and excited about getting to work on everything we could right now! The first thing we did was add the driveway. Yes, there was a little bit of grassy gravel but no driveway so here comes the concrete truck. As the driveway was being done we decided we really needed a cover to park under, so the carport was added. The sixteen windows in the front and sides were broken or rotten so all of them had to be replaced. Together my dad and Tim replaced everyone of those floor to ceiling windows. The back windows would be the last to go 5 years later. Our hardwood floors were all sanded, we put new kitchen flooring in, and there was a lot of painting to do. We had not really considered the columns at the front of the house. They all had to be stripped and painted, and all the trim needed to be painted because back then everything was wood. The back brick patio was caving in and had to be rebuilt. Soon we realized the bathrooms were going to have to wait. After some paint stripping and wall paper removal and new décor they would do just fine. At least nothing was pepto-bismol pink! There were times I asked myself, "how did we get into this?" The appliances were painted with the correct paint and look just fine. My dad fixed the screen patio and all the leaky pipes. The yard would wait until fall, and we did some finishing up in the basement where my workshop would be. It sounds like we did a lot and we did. I have to give credit to my father. My dad was here at our home every morning like clock work. Dad was retired and this was like his job. He enjoyed it and all he asked for was a tuna sandwich and he would head back to his home around two or three each day. As dad came by we saw the pipes in every bathroom replaced, doors removed. Closet doors were fixed and there was daily work on trims and windows. Dad kept an eye on the men we hired to do a lot of the work we could not. We did so much so quickly we had to stop and recoup. We took a long break. Not much else but yard work would be done for a few years.

I guess when you are young you can live with so much still undone because you have a dream and you know in time-- with a lot of hard work and sweat-- you can take a house that was neglected over the years and truly make it yours. These older homes are our history, and when you take them and add love, they will give you back all you put into them. I never worried much about the kitchen not being done right now, I knew it would be someday. I was just happy to walk through my old house with the knowledge that we loved it and it loved us back.

Years have gone by. Tim and I would always save to do something else needed to be done. We did not take as many vacations as friends did and many nights were spent sitting outback enjoying our yard and talking about what we would do next. This old house and all it problems became our forever home. When you find a house you love, you become patient. You can envision what you plan for and eventually you can make it come true. Nothing comes easy.

Tim and I put a lot of time and work into our yard before we even did the kitchen. It might have been the dread of going through the renovation or maybe just the fun of working in the yard. Over the years we added ponds, walk ways, trees, gardens, and finally a garage. It is funny to me now how I would walk through gardens when I was in the garden club and wonder how people get all this done! Now here we are always messing around in the yard and now I know it took years of hard work, days of caring and having your spouse thinking the same ideas or at the least being by your side cheering you on.
The kitchen was my biggest dream! It took years to get to ,but eventually we gutted to the kitchen and it turned out just how I had always wanted it. We took a turn and did something not planned and renovated Ashley's room to give her more space as she went into college (and to store her growing collection of shoes). The bathrooms have had some minor fixes, but full remodels are what I see in the near future.

It has been a journey with this old house. We could have just stayed where we were or found a house with nothing to do but live in. If we could go back, we would not change a thing. This old house has been part of our lives, all the good and the bad. The wintery day we moved in and the heater would not turn on, the day the leak poured from the upper bathroom down to the kitchen. It does not matter if you buy old or new, you will have issues.

If you are someone getting ready to renovate just prepare yourself for what is to come. Take a deep breath! Do not be afraid because I can tell you it is all worth it! After you get a little more silver in your hair and fuss to anyone who will listen, the dream becomes reality and you slowly forget for a while about all the mess that you put up with. You're so grateful and glad it is over! You swear you will never use that fix-it guy again and you can't deal with any more remodeling... until the next plan.

We had a lot of sanding to be done and all the floors were beautifully refinished.
The dining room flooring had to all be taken out and the man we hired put a few old
and a few new all the way through. You would never know.

believe it or not I lived with this for years! For some crazy
reason Tim and most men thought this was pretty nice.
Something about real wood and custom. It is all gone after 15 years!